Posted on 06/20/2002 7:46:48 AM PDT by RaceBannon
Ashcroft to Make it Official: Clintons Are Above the Law
Attorney General John Ashcroft is said to be ready to close out a key aspect of his Justice Department investigation into the Clinton pardon trading scandal, effectively confirming that both the ex-president and his New York senator wife are now officially above the law.
"The Justice Department is expected within a month to shut down its probe into whether (then-President) Clinton gave clemency to four convicted felons of the Hasidic enclave of New Square after the town voted 1,400 to 12 for Hillary Clinton in her Senate election," the New York Daily News reported Thursday.
"The New Square part is likely to be closed without criminal charges being brought," a source familiar with the investigation told The News.
Four New Square Hasidic rabbis, who had been jailed for bilking the government out of millions of dollars earmarked for anti-poverty programs, were freed from jail earlier this year as a result of the Clinton clemency deal.
Hasidic communities surrounding New Square that weren't granted any special presidential favors voted heavily for Mrs. Clinton's opponent, Rick Lazio.
The decision to clear Mrs. Clinton comes despite earlier reports that at least one witness had fingered her in the vote-trading conspiracy.
Prosecutors had found a witness who says the senator was present during discussions of clemency before the election, sources familiar with the probe told the News in January.
The investigation into Clinton's illegal pardon of fugitive billionaire Marc Rich, as well smoking gun evidence that former first brother Roger Clinton traded pardon promises for cash, remains open. But after more than a year of relative inactivity, observers also expect those probes to end without indictments.
The contrast with other more recent Justice Department prosecutions couldn't be more stark, illustrating what government probers can do when they're not constrained by political considerations.
The accounting giant Arthur Andersen, for instance, was convicted just last week based on an indictment that charged the entire company with obstruction of justice. The conviction left more than a few legal experts wondering about prosecutorial overreach.
The recent conviction of Michael Skakel for the 26-year-old murder of Martha Moxley was based entirely on circumstantial evidence, in a case that appeared far weaker than the one prosecutors have built against the Clintons.
Though the Skakel conviction wasn't a federal prosecution, the surprise guilty verdict illustrates what prosecutors can accomplish when they're interested in actually enforcing the law.
Beyond Pardongate, the Bush Justice Department has either plea bargained or abandoned outright other possible prosecutions against the Clintons, while ignoring altogether additional serious reports of wrongdoing, including:
• Allegations that Indonesian billionaire James Riady illegally funneled millions of dollars into Clinton presidential campaigns.
• Reports that the Clinton White House withheld and or attempted to destroy millions of evidentiary e-mails that had been subpeonaed by the Office of Independent Counsel.
• Complaints from Clinton accusers Gennifer Flowers, Paula Jones, Juanita Broaddrick and Elizabeth Ward Gracen that they were subjected to politically motivated IRS audits after speaking out about sexual encounters with the president.
• Charges from Democratic Party contributor Peter Paul that the Clintons failed to report his $2 million donation to the Federal Election Commission.
• Allegations that Mrs. Clinton's acceptance of an $8 million book advance after she was elected to the Senate may have violated federal bribery statutes.
• A complaint from White House whistleblower Linda Tripp that officials with the Clinton Pentagon illegally leaked information from her confidential employment file to the media.
• Reports that a Westchester County police officer may have been threatened with the loss of his job for talking about an accident where he was seriously injured by a car carrying Mrs. Clinton.
Or if you prefer to fax, try this:
http://capwiz.com/acu/dbq/officials/agencies/?command=search
...yell at your wall. It’ll do just as much good.I am afraid you are right,
but most of us won't figure that out until four years from now.
...yell at your wall. It’ll do just as much good.I am afraid you are right,
but most of us won't figure that out until four years from now.
For those that feel stongly about this, Judicial Watch will take your money.
If we can't even decide that charges are enough to remove a person from high office, how can we jail him for them? The fact is, the Democrats didn't have the stomach for impeachment and, unless Clinton is brought up on new charges or the Senate ethics committee decides to investigate Hillary, we're stuck.
The Offical FR Dubya Clean Up Squad Position for now
Just thought I would be the first to say it..
The Clintons will have their day in court eventually...
SHEEEESH, it's a bi-partisan Obstruction of Justice...MUD
No they won't.
Way to go. You have just left his boss out of the picture. Is Bush the teflon president?
Because nobody will hold them accountable.
This is why I believe a Democrat could simply declare himself (or herself) King (or Queen) for life and nothing would happen.
Perhaps something needs to be explained here. In third-world dictatorships, whenever there's a coup or an "election", the previous officeholders are tried on "crimes" and shot or imprisoned. We don't do that here, even when the crimes are legitimate.
We are not talking about only “previous officeholders”.
Mrs. Clinton is a current US Senator, and she is a crook who is apparently above the law.
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